Methi Moong Dal Subzi - Tribute to Tarla Dalal

RIP Tarla Dalal - Today while browsing through the news, came across news on Tarla Dalal's death. Hence wanted to do a post on the recipe learnt from her. I had modified this recipe per my taste and ingredients available at home during that time and noting the same here.

Ingredients -
1/2 cup Yellow moong dal soaked 30 mins
1 cup Kasturi Methi(Original one was made from fresh methi)
1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 small onion - Chopped
4 cloves garlic - grated
1 green chilli - Chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp flax seeds powder (used instead of Besan)
2 tsp Oil
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds crackle, add onion, garlic, green chillies and sauté them.
2. Add Kasturi methi and sauté it nicely
3. Add turmeric powder and salt and soaked moong dal and stir
4. Add 2 cups water and bring it to boil.
5. Add flax seeds powder and simmer it till moong dal is cooked.

Had this with rotis and left over as snack in the evening :)

Quick Mushroom Soup

Soups are my all time favorites..I remember how I used to enjoy hot and spicy tomato soups made my mummy during cold winter nights .. I always relished on having soups at restaurants and Knor ready to make soups. Whenever I had planned to make soup at home, I was short of one or two main ingredients and hence, always discarded the idea. Finally I came across this soup recipe by Tarla Dalal - http://www.tarladalal.com/Quick-Mushroom-Soup-1723r and looking at recipe I knew I have to try it.

I am noting down the recipe I tried which is slight modification of original recipe.

Ingredients for 2 servings

4 medium sized button mushroom - finely chopped

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/4 capsicum finely chopped

Salted butter

1/2 cup milk

Salt & pepper as per taste

1. Boil 1 cup water along with milk.

2. Heat butter and sauté onions, mushrooms and capsicum till onions turns pink.

3. Add boiling milk + water mixture and simmer it till the required thickness has formed. Add salt & pepper.

My Fav Author - Sophie Kinsella

I cannot describe myself as an avid reader, but can definitely say that I love to read stuff that interests me like Fiction novels, blogs, short stories, magazines are to name few. If I love the novel in hand then definitely I will get time to read and finish it unless I would not be able to sleep 😜 else it would be lying in my shelf and I would be reading 2-3 pages once a while.

I am of the type who loves the article(relationship, life & style, health , etc) in extra paper in the newspaper more than the news articles. 

Coming to the point, I wanted to write this blog on my favorite author these days - Sophie Kinsella. I came across Sophie's  books while browsing through the fiction shelf of public library. Then I had just heard of Shopaloholic series but never read one. Because of short of time, I just picked one without checking much - Shopaloholic & sister. And since then got addicted to Sophie's writing whether it's Becky Bloomwood or Samantha or Lara. I read her almost all books that I got hold of in library. These days I have started with the novels written under the name - Madeleine Wickham and hope I enjoy reading those too.

East Coast Getaway - New York & Niagara Falls

Its been more than a year [Memorial Day Weekend - 2012] since we went to New York & Niagara falls.. I wanted to blog on the trip since long but lazy part of me was stopping me with one or the other excuse, One of them being I don't have the pics in my laptop.. Now, I have decided to blog the content first and then keep on updating with the pics.. So, below is the itinerary from our trip..

Day 1 - Reached New York, Our friend has picked up from airport and we headed straight to Brooklyn Bridge State park and followed by walk on the bridge, coffee & my fav paneni at starbucks.. Followed by Indian Lunch at Bombay Masala.. Then we headed to take the ferry for Statue of Liberty & Elise Island.. went to Financial District passing NYSE .. Bull, WTC, Evening was spent at Times Square.. Dinner was roadside Biryani :)

Day 2 - Went to Roosevelt Island.. took a ropeway from and to the Roosevelt island along Queensboro Bridge... Then we went to Manhattan and entered the Central Park to realize that vehicles are banned inside because of Long weekend. Had Thai Lunch and headed towards New Jersey for Pole Position Raceway Jersey City and I was last in the race while Hubby dear was first :)

Again headed towards the times square as we had not been to Empire State Building.. Special tickets made our life easy as we had to skip the long queue and got the direct entrance..

Day 3 - Took a flight to Niagara.. Rented a car and went to Niagara Falls National Park.. Headed straight for the Maid of the Mist ferry.. followed by Cave of the winds.. enjoyed a lot at cave of winds.. followed by Lunch and spent some time near Horse Shoe Point.

Day 4 - It was time for us to go back to San Jose but spent the time with friends - exploring Buffalo University followed by Lunch at Duffs and took our flight back..

Vizag & Araku Valley

My friend has recently visited us for 3 days and below was our travel itinerary for 2 days with the last day spent at home relaxing..

Rishikonda Beach

Day 1 - We headed straight to Rishikonda Beach[ I have already blogged here about the beach] spent the evening doing photo shots, enjoying water.. 

Around 6 o clock we took an auto and headed towards Kailashgiri.. This time we thought of taking a ropeway to the hill and it was awesome ride with the night views of RK Beach and Vizag city.  

After walking around the hills and taking some pics at Shiva Parvati idol we headed for dinner at Daspalla, Jagdamba Center.

Araku Valley from view point

Day 2 - Our day started early with the breakfast at home and journey towards Arakku Valley.. We had hired a cab for this day.  After starting, our first stopover was at Coffee Plantation on the way to Araku valley view point. There were lots of vendor selling fresh coffee powder and spices.. We had coffee there, though skipped the hot pakodas :) 
Next stop was Araku valley view point - we got some very beautiful clicks of the valley from here.
We headed to Araku and had light snacks at Coffee House which is newly built in front of the Tribal Museum. 

Araku Valley

Next destination was Araku Tribal Museum which takes us through the life of Tribals in the area.. Its nice one although I dont have any pics from there as photography is not allowed :(

Limestone formation inside the caves

Just outside the museum there was stall and a hut were they were selling Bamboo chicken and how can we miss them..
Next was our stop for Lunch in a village near Borra Caves - which has lots of huts serving hot meals :) We were late for the Lunch - 3 pm but the food was nice. After having our food, we headed towards the last destination of the day - Borra Caves [ Borra = Hole in Oriya ] .. This cave has lot of Limestone formation [& Bats inside]. There are few waterfalls near the cave but we skipped them as we were exhausted for the day..

More pics from Borra Caves

Limestone formation - Looks like melted wax

Sun light through the Borra

Day out at Rishikonda beach...

Vast Bay of Bengal at Rishikonda Beach

On a Sunny afternoon in December, we had made a plan for outing, for which beach was a perfect day out destination. Also, it was one month since we moved to Vizag, India and surprisingly had not been to beach...


After having our lunch at Sea Inn, a small hut with delicious non-veg delicacies near Rishikonda Beach, we headed towards the beach.

To our surprise, normally calm and deserted beach was so crowded because of Sunday in Karthik. I came to know then that the Karthik month [eighth month of Lunar calendar which Hindus follow] is also Picnic time :)

We were welcomed by small merry go round, lots of corn stalls, and other vendors selling street food. Again this was not expected as last time when I have been to this place [ which was before 2 yrs], it was always calm and serene and not at all commercialized.

While walking on the beach, we went on the other side which is usually less crowded. This side of beach is rocky and not safe for swimming but a nice place to enjoy the walk along side beach. We spotted many of the below blue jelly fishes along the coast.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita_porpita

A movie @ Varun Beach Inox was a refreshing end to our wonderful day :)

PS- I am not good at taking pictures all the above pics are taken by my Husband...

Alaska - Land of Midnight Sun

Day 1
landed anchorage

Hotel - travelodge, anchorage

Lunch + Dinner - @ Oakland Airport

Day 2
started for talkeetna, went to talkeetna downtown (country side), did paddle boating in fish lake, had a nice nap in Alaska float plane lounge while waiting for weather to clear for flight seeing, started for Denali as no flight seeing because of weather!! After  enjoying the route to Denali NP, browsed gift stores..took a mile walk to lake near our hotel in Healy and still no sight of darkness ..

Hotel - Healy Lodge

Breakfast - Travelodge

Lunch - Thai Food at Talkeetna

Dinner - Ready to make noodles @ Hotel room

Day 3
Took a tour bus to Denali NP @ 7:30 am
spotted some dall Sheeps which were appearing as small white dots on the mountains , a grizzly bear with its cubs, cow moose, caribou, ground squirrels which were posing for us, golden eagle ..
Visited eilson visitor center, Fenny's cabin, wonder lake and small treks for photo though we were not able to take a glimpse of Mt McKinley because of weather

Hotel - Healy Lodge

Breakfast - Banana @ Hotel Room

Lunch - Provided in tour bus

Dinner - Thai Food

Day 4 - 07.09.2012
Sled dog demonstration , 10 am show
Took horseshoe lake trail
Denali NP&preserve visitor center which has nice collection of exhibits
Drove back to anchorage with few stopovers to watch the glory of 'the Denali ' at denali state park north & south viewpoints, mile 22 near lake

Hotel - Travelodge, Anchorage

Breakfast  - Fruits

Lunch - Denali NP Restuarant

Dinner - Subway

Day 5
Drove to Whittier with stopover at tungaarm(cook inlet  iewing areaing), portage glacier visitor center, portage lake with the first glimpse of iceberg
Went through railroad tunnel of 2.2 miles
Took a 26 glacier cruise to Prince William sound -  Went to harryman, surprise, cox, etc glacier; watched sealions, sea otters, seals,
Drove to Seward

Hotel - Farm Bed & Breakfast, Seward

Breakfast - Travelodge

Lunch - Fish & Chips in Cruise

Dinner - Home made tomato rice 

Day 6
exit glacier - took edge of the glacier hike through glacier view & overflow plane trail
Spotted 3 black bears on snow spot at a mountain on the opposite side of edge of exit glacier
Relax
Went to Seward downtown

Hotel - Farm Bed & Breakfast, Seward

Breakfast - Farm B&B

Lunch - Safeway 

Dinner - Home made Chicken Biryani

Day 7
Kenai fjords wildlife cruise for 4.5 hours
Spotted killer whale, humpback whale, dall purpoise , sea otters , stellar sea lions , puffins, orange jellies, ducks, sea gulls, mountain goats
Went to Alaska sea life center( I played with seal)
Went for dog sled tour(ididaride) - cuddled Alaskan huskies, understood the process of dog sled races, went on sled dog ride of 2 miles
Went to lost lake trail but I was scared very much that we returned back in 5 mins

Hotel - Farm Bed & Breakfast, Seward

Breakfast - Farm B&B

Lunch - Cruise to Kenai Fjords

Dinner - Home made Chicken Biryani

Day 8
Hiked the 2.3 mile trail to Upper Russians river falls
Drove the beautiful scenic Sterling highway with the stops at some scenic points
Went to Homer split, walked around the spit and after having the home made Halibut Fry + Rice..walked in the beach 

Hotel - Northern Company Charter Guest Room, Homer Spit

Breakfast - Farm B&B

Lunch - Home made - Tomato rice

Dinner - Home made - Halibut Fry + Rice, Thai Soup

Pics of our guest room - 

Day 9
Spend some time at Beach in Homer Spit, Drove back to Anchorage through Sterling Highway & Seward highway with few stops at scenic places

Hotel - Airport + Flight

Breakfast - Bread + Curd

Lunch  - Thai Food

Dinner @ The Dish Japanese Restuarant in Anchorage